Counseling Services
With over 20 years of experience and expertise in the field, Elisabeth has helped hundreds of individuals and families navigate life. Combining deep compassion and sensitivity with professional and therapeutic expertise, she helps clients face challenges - often ones that they never expected to be a part of their journey - so that they can move forward with clarity and hope.
What Sets Us Apart
Professional excellence and integrity, honed through a Masters in Marriage and Family Therapy at Fuller Theological Seminary, a certificate in Palliative Care Support from Harvard Medical School (PCEP 2024) and a Certification from NYU Stern Institute on Purpose and Flourishing (2025) are the cornerstones of my therapeutic approach to counseling.
Years of supporting individuals through all variety of challenges, and couples through infertility, pregnancy loss, stillbirth and loss of a child, have given me the knowledge and expertise to thoughtfully and gently guide clients through some of the most challenging moments of their lives. My goal is to help clients move from a place of challenge to a place of hope and empowerment.
Therapeutic Approach
From a clinical perspective, the modalities I most frequently use in my individual work are a Narrative Therapy, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), and Emotion Focused Therapy. The key tenets of IPT are to recognize and explore the role transition that occurs for individuals and couples as they face challenges, to explore feelings of grief and loss that may be occurring, and to address any interpersonal conflicts that are at play. In narrative therapy, we focus on giving clients space to tell their stories, past and present. As clients share their stories, they are invited to imagine and discover a new narrative, one in which they proactively choose the path before them. Cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) is quite different but also provides important and helpful elements of healing. In CBT, we provide tools for managing and expressing stress, anxiety and grief in healthy ways. Internal family systems work views the self as a combination of different parts that, when acknowledged and integrated, can lead to greater internal harmony and alignment. In couples work, Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT) is a model built on the theory that secure attachment and healthy bonds lead to balance in relationships. Through naming and understanding patterns of conflict and why they emerge, we are able to shift and find new ways to get our needs met.
Meeting You on Your Terms
Our office has a very flexible approach to structuring sessions. We typically suggest a 50 minute session for individuals and couples but can offer double sessions that are 1 hour and 30 minutes for those that are interested. For couples in particular, the extra time can offer a deeper dive into exploring the issues you face.
While we do request a 24 hour notice for cancellations, we do not have an expectation of specific intervals for sessions. Some clients schedule sessions only on an as-needed basis. Others like to have a committed, weekly time. And still others may choose bi-weekly or once a month.
The goal is that you are in control of your experience and that you never feel compelled to come to a session “just because.” We want to meet you where you are and with what you need, when you feel you need it.
Education and Certifications in Best Practices
Educated and trained by the best, Elisabeth now trains and educates others. Her practice includes teaching at hospitals and medical practices in the area, training physicians, nurses and staff on the ideal, family centered care of their patients and guiding groups as they navigate changes.
Georgetown University, BS in Business Administration
Fuller Theological Seminary, MS in Marital and Family Therapy
Harvard Medical School, Palliative Care Education Program Certificate
NYU Stern, Certification in Becoming You from the Institute on Purpose and Flourishing
Our Services
INFERTILITY
When the one thing you are working hardest at, the one thing you dream of most, feels beyond your reach, I listen and offer concrete tools for how to manage the wide variety of emotions that the experience brings.
I make space for the reality that no two people experience infertility in the same way. Your story is your own and I will provide a place for you to share, grieve, manage the impact of this experience on relationships, find hope and explore what comes next.
My therapeutic perspective in this work is largely based on protocols which I have developed over the past 20 years of working in this area -and teaching and training providers about how to support families going through infertility.
I believe that the pain of infertility is unique to each individual and couple and is also very misunderstood and sometimes hidden by our culture.
Grieving even as you work to support and/or grow the family you have creates a unique set of challenges. Finding a safe space to share this experience is a critical part of moving forward in a healthy way.
GRIEF AND LOSS
As you face your grief and explore what comes next in a story that looks far different from the one you dreamed, I will help make space for the entire narrative.
I will give you tools for the experience you are in and help you explore how to grow and thrive despite the pain.
I believe there is no therapeutic approach or protocol to follow in grief counseling because the symptoms experienced are normal and appropriate for an experience of profound loss. Rather, we will explore together how to make space for the wide variety of feelings that emerge, validating the experience and finding a path toward hope and peace while also making space for the profound grief and loss. We make space for the BOTH/AND.
Grief is a very individualized experience. No two people grieve alike, nor should we encourage them to. It is my goal to help people discover what they need in order to share their pain, acknowledge and respect their loss, and to find peace in the midst of the grief and heartache.
Explore our expertise to learn more about how we can support you…
RELATIONAL CHALLENGES
Relationships are challenging because life is challenging.
We may be equipped with wonderful communication tools and excellent experience working with our partner or we may come to a partnership with a history of heartache and difficulty trusting.
Whatever your relational circumstance may be, my goal is to provide a place where you can explore what is happening in your relational cycle, define what you need, share your experience in healthy ways and create a path forward that feels hopeful.
My therapeutic lens is the evidence based approach known as Emotionally Focused Therapy which draws on attachment theory and works to facilitate healthy, secure connection with others. Link: https://drsuejohnson.com/iceeft/
TRAUMA
When we experience distressing events that impact our sense of safety in the world, we need tools to understand our physical and emotional responses and to bring ourselves back into alignment and balance.
I create a safe space to process what you have experienced while also helping you find your inner strengths and resources – as well as those around you - that can ground you in strength and empowerment.
I use protocols developed by the Trauma Resource Institute as well as years working with a wide variety of clients who have experienced severe trauma. https://www.traumaresourceinstitute.com/about
INDIVIDUAL GROWTH
When your next steps feel out of focus, your relationship to yourself or others seems “off” or you know you need to step back to explore what your personal goals are, I can help.
Through psychodynamic, CBT, internal family systems, attachment and strengths based modalities, I explore a wide variety of tools and techniques to help you find strength, hope and empowerment.
Let’s Work Together
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